How We Ended Up Suspended Off The CN Tower (And Lived To Tell The Tale)

The last time I visited the CN Tower was the year the glass floor first got installed… 1994 to be exact. I still have memories from standing on the glass floor looking down at the mini version of Toronto below. This is probably a similar story for most of you Ontario residents… You visited the CN Tower while you were a child and haven’t been since. That is until now.

Fast forward two decades and I’m back in the big city looking for something fun to do and a friend suggests the CN Tower Edge Walk. Without really thinking twice I agreed to give it a try.

When we arrived, I looked up at the CN Tower and saw five people suspended off the edge of the tower… that is when the fear seeped in. Those people way up there were doing exactly what we were about to go do.

If you look closely you will see five humans hanging off the CN Tower…

We pre-booked our tickets online so we could skip the big lines and go straight to sign in for our Edge Walk. They sent us into a prep room to remove everything loose, tie our shoes really tight and jump into a red jumpsuit. At this point, I felt like an astronaut getting ready to launch to the moon. Each and every employee checked that our suits were secure and our shoes were on tight.

Fear sets in as you watch the group before you outside on the deck and witness what you are about to subject yourself to. Then in a flash, it is your turn and you are escorted into the elevator. Up and up you go. Eventually, you reach another area that looks like a spaceship and a guide is there ready to clip you into the tower.

I don’t know why this always happens to me but somehow they made me go first. The doors open and they send me off to walk out onto the tower alone, 356m/1168ft (116 storeys) above the ground. I have been bungee jumping, skydiving, rock climbing and zip lining so I figured this would be no sweat. Nope. I was so scared. And to make things worse the first thing they make you do is to walk to the edge, stick your toes over and let go of the wire to put your hands up. I think I put like a half a centimetre of my toes over the edge I was so scared. At this point, you haven’t felt the tension of the wire so it basically feels like nothing is supporting you.

The moment of complete trust in your harness

For the next half hour, we walked around the tower getting a tour of the city and doing little activities like hanging handsfree backwards off the tower, leaning forward off the tower with no hands and literally walking on the edge. By the middle of the tower, you surprisingly start to feel more comfortable… I promise. Plus, the views are incredible and if you get it on a sunny day you can even watch a Jays game from the tower. Best seats in the house.

Caley Vanular and Sasha Barkans cold chillin’

By the end, you are so comfortable you could stay up there all day. When the fun is over and you get back inside, they unclip you from the wire and you feel an incredible feeling of relief as the adrenaline dissipates through your body. The elevator ride down the tower is filled with a feeling of accomplishment as you shake off the surreal experience you just embarked on.

Sasha Barkans feeling like the king of the six

The CN Tower Edge Walk is seriously like nothing else and I highly recommend you try it. Especially if you have friends visiting from out of town as for $195 you get the Edge Walk, a ticket up the tower and entrance to the Skypod which is 33 storeys higher than the lookout (you can see the EdgeWalk participants walking outside the tower below you). For more information on the CN Tower Edge Walk, click here.